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Land Before Time: Twilight Valley

Serris · 237 · 32232

Godsmack

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This is getting really good. Can't wait for the next chapter!


Serris

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Chapter 34 is online! Enjoy!

Personally, I really feel that this was not my best work but it moves the plot along.

Chapter 34

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Author's Notes

Big Water Swimmer = Pleisosaur

Diamond is the term used to refer to members of Diamond Squad.

Pangaea gets all credit for having Mo spy on the Great Valley.

The fire breathing flyer is ported over from the LBT fan fic Shadow Fire and its sequel.

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Cancerian Tiger

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Sheesh, that was very dirty of Styracus' group to massacre the Yellowbellies like that <_<.  I'm glad to see Littlefoot's group made it back safely, though :yes.


Caustizer

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Claw just keeps piling up the atrocities.  I'm surprised that the yellowbellies would be so rebellious to the sharpteeth's demands rather then simply going with the flow.  They were such dumb characters in the thirteenth movie and their lack of wisdom often manifested itself in misinterpretation and non-confrontation.

Be that is it may though, I was happy to see them ripped to pieces (guilty pleasure :lol ) and have their best defensive attempts fail before Claw Valley's military superiority.

It made sense that the Great Valley dinosaurs made good use of Mo as a scout, but in all honesty he wouldn't do them much good since very little can be seen from the Big Water that would be useful.  A more useful task would probably be to take down Claw's swimmer that transports the prisoners out to Cloud Island.  Doing so would trap Ms. Maia and what's left of her army to be dealt with later but thats purely my take on the situation. A good writer like you could probably wrap a scouting mission similarly well.

I must say that I'm surprised the Great Valley dinosaurs aren't anxious to get their home back.  They should be questioning Grandpa Longnecks conservative leadership at this point, since he has yet to really have any success versus Claw's radical wartime actions.

Let's use a real life example - in 1940 Great Britian was under Neville Chamberlain and due to his inability to counterattack the Nazis and drive them out of key areas of Africa and Norway he was ousted in favour of the radical Winston Churchill.  Churchill had denounced Hilter from day one of his rise to power and once in office the rest was history.

What I'm saying is, perhaps the Great Valley at this point needs a radical like Mr. Threehorn to take the leading role because of the dire threat that Claw represents to their survival.  Now that he has effectively reformed the army (using a phalanx system) the next step would be to push for Allies so they can outnumber and crush their Claw Valley foes who have vastly superior arms (thanks to development and the Stone of Cold Fire).

Total War is a strange and nasty concept that the Great Valley dinosaurs have yet to grasp.


Serris

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Caustizer, I want to address your review:

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They were such dumb characters in the thirteenth movie and their lack of wisdom often manifested itself in misinterpretation and non-confrontation.

Exactly, their idiocy leads to pretty much all the Yellowbellies getting massacred.

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It made sense that the Great Valley dinosaurs made good use of Mo as a scout, but in all honesty he wouldn't do them much good since very little can be seen from the Big Water that would be useful. A more useful task would probably be to take down Claw's swimmer that transports the prisoners out to Cloud Island.

The Claw Valley transport swimmer is MUCH larger than Mo (roughly the same size as the Liopluerodon from LBT 9). Mo can do nothing more than distract the transport swimmer. And as shown in LBT 9, there is a river that leads from the Big Water to the Great Valley.

Mo will also have his "water kin" assist him in the recon mission.

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I must say that I'm surprised the Great Valley dinosaurs aren't anxious to get their home back. They should be questioning Grandpa Longnecks conservative leadership at this point, since he has yet to really have any success versus Claw's radical wartime actions.

Oh, just wait until the next chapter. There will be some very heated words exchanged between the inhabitants and the leaders. I will not spoil everything but after the debate, the Great Valley Air Corps will be engaged in some sabotage and recon.

Then after Mo's scout group returns, they will start heading back to the Great Valley.

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The next step would be to push for Allies so they can outnumber and crush their Claw Valley foes who have vastly superior arms (thanks to development and the Stone of Cold Fire).

Not sure where they can seek allies from. I was thinking of them encountering some sharpteeth (or possibly leafeaters) who lost their homes to Claw's military machine and they decide to join in the fight.

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Pangaea

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Here is a conversation Serris and I had regarding Chapter 33, which led to the additions he made to that chapter earlier:

Quote from: Pangaea,Feb 6 2010 on  11:16 PM
I had a few comments and questions on the latest chapter of Twilight Valley:

In Chapter 29, you had a highly emotional scene where Vio dies from wounds sustained in battle and is mourned by the entire group, but in this chapter, Ed is killed while the group is fleeing from the enemy, and while Sorna briefly shows concern for him, he is not so much as even mentioned again in the chapter, even when the group stops to rest and eat. All I have to say here is...:huh:

Also, how is it that both Mo and Elsie show up together at the same time, right when Littlefoot’s group needs them? Do they both have extraordinarily good hearing, and were drawn to the same location independent of one another, or are they actually hanging out together? (If that's the case, then why?) There’s also the issue of the second plesiosaur who aided in the rescue and where it came from. Perhaps you could provide explanations in the next chapter.

Finally, in the paragraph describing the fight scene where Isla is killed, there’s a part (underlined) that should be its own sentence.
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Isla was fighting with Procella and a Swimmer armed with a rock. Isla’s weapon, a heavy stick, fared quite well against the two. She used her free hand to catch Procella’s weapon arm and disarmed her with a blow to the wrist, which she followed with a strike to the ribs before she could deliver the finishing blow, the Swimmer snuck behind her and hit her in the back of the head with his rock, killing her almost instantly.
Quote from: Serris,Feb 6 2010 on  11:16 PM
The explanation for why they failed to even talk about Ed is because they basically forgot about him.

Mo and Elsie were drawn there independently of each other.

The second plesiosaur will be addressed in the next chapter.
Quote from: Pangaea,Feb 7 2010 on  04:39 AM
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The explanation for why they failed to even talk about Ed is because they basically forgot about him.

No offense, but that sounds unbelievable. They completely forgot one of their own? :blink: Sounds very unlike the Great Valley dinosaurs, especially Ducky and Chomper. I think there should have at least been a "Where's Ed?" moment after they stopped to rest.

Also, if you weren't planning to already, I think you should have Mo play a further role in the next chapter. Despite being given a scouting assignment, he didn't really play an active or independent role in the rescue, and sort of comes off as just having been inserted into the chapter for the sake of a cameo.

One more thing: what happened to Nublar? :confused You never described him being killed or escaping the island with the others.
Quote from: Serris,Feb 7 2010 on  10:50 AM
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The explanation for why they failed to even talk about Ed is because they basically forgot about him.

No offense, but that sounds unbelievable. They completely forgot one of their own? :blink: Sounds very unlike the Great Valley dinosaurs, especially Ducky and Chomper. I think there should have at least been a "Where's Ed?" moment after they stopped to rest.
That will be fixed when I have time.

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Also, if you weren't planning to already, I think you should have Mo play a further role in the next chapter. Despite being given a scouting assignment, he didn't really play an active or independent role in the rescue, and sort of comes off as just having been inserted into the chapter for the sake of a cameo.
Not sure how he should play a more active role in the next chapter.

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One more thing: what happened to Nublar? :confused You never described him being killed or escaping the island with the others.
Nublar dies in the final battle. I will write in a scene where he dies.



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Pangaea

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I think the idea of the Great Valley dinosaurs finding allies in displaced sharpteeth and other dinosaurs is a good one. Your story has already featured groups of dinosaurs not affiliated with either valley (the spikethumbs from the Land of Mists, the egg stealers in Chapter 20, and the swimmers with bows and arrows); you could introduce some new ones that the GV could recruit to help them fight.

Another idea I had was that when the GV inhabitants attempt to retake their home, some of the dinosaurs from Styracus’s herd could change sides and fight with them (if they deem that the GV dinosaurs have a good chance of succeeding in their endeavor based on the fighting forces they have mustered). As you showed with Blackjack the clubtail in the last chapter, some of Styracus’s followers are displeased with the war. I would imagine that the first priorities of such characters would be to keep their new home, and if sticking with Styracus and Excidium meant that they would be defeated and kicked out of it, would prefer to fight with, or surrender, to the other side. (Does any of that make sense? :oops)

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The two Big Water Swimmers and Mo were gliding through the glassy water of the ocean.
You refer to the plesiosaurs as both “Big Water Swimmers” and “Aquatic Longnecks” in this chapter. My opinion is that “Aquatic Longneck” (or “Water Longneck”, or “Swimming Longneck”; I tend to think of “aquatic” as being a bit too fancy a word for LBT) ought to be used when referring specifically to the plesiosaurs, while “Big Water Swimmer” could be used for any marine reptile, such as Mo.

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Almost as the words left his mouth, he mentally slapped himself.
Should be “as soon as”.

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"I take it that you were successful?" Pterano asked.
"We were. But not without casualties, Rytho, Ed, Sorna, Isla, Nublar and Cirrus did not make it off the island," Deimos said sadly.
Not necessarily a mistake, but Pterano and the others who stayed on High Tree Island do not know who Sorna, Isla, Nublar and Cirrus are. It might make sense if Deimos mentioned that they were a group of fast runners native to the island who had helped them. (This is probably the least significant issue I am highlighting in this review, and it wouldn’t matter much if you ignored it.)

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"Elsie, I mean to ask you this a while ago but, who's the other Aquatic Longneck with you?" Littlefoot asked.
Should be “meant”.

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Styracus, Stoneclaw, Flamewing, Icthy, Dil Saber, Theta, Hasta and a single Reborn and a single Diamond were gathered around the burned out remains of a campfire.
You’re missing a comma between the two underlined names. Also, considering that Stoneclaw and Flamewing are both Reborn, it makes things a little confusing when you say that there is “a single Reborn” with them. The solution I’d suggest is to list Stoneclaw and Flamewing’s names, followed by “another Reborn”. Here’s an example of how the sentence could be rewritten:
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Styracus, Icthy, Dil, Saber, Theta, Hasta, Stoneclaw, Flamewing, another Reborn, and a single Diamond were gathered around the burned out remains of a campfire.

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"There are apparently no weapons and no patrols that we can see in Berry Valley and -," Ozzie said before Sierra cut him off.
The hyphen indicating the interruption should be a dash, and there should be no comma.

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There, Styracus stood, flanked by Stoneclaw and another Reborn, this one was a sickleclaw with metallic silver skin and strange metallic claws.
Since you mentioned earlier that there was another Reborn present, perhaps this should be changed to “the other”. Also, the word “was” is not necessary.

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Stoneclaw seethed at Styracus's diplomatic approach but he figured that something would go wrong and he will get to kill.
Should be “would”.

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"What's the matter, afraid," he said mockingly.
There should be a question mark at the end of Theta’s line.

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He was standing next to half of a Yellowbelly and behind him were the remains of several Yellowbellies, spread out over many square feet of bloody ground/
Obviously you meant to type a period here. One of the few typos I’ve seen involving a punctuation mark. :p

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"Let's see if we can keep a few of those Yellowbellies as food," Saber said, "After all, we have three sharpteeth to feed."
"Saber, perhaps you are not aware of this but we Reborn do not need food," the silver sickleclaw said.
"Okay, make that three sharpteeth and one Sharpbeak."
If I understand correctly, the sharpteeth in the group are Saber, Stoneclaw, the Reborn sickleclaw, and the Diamond sickleclaw. Unless Saber is discounting himself, shouldn’t his initial statement be “four sharpteeth”? And if the Reborn do not need to eat, his revised statement should be “two sharpteeth, one sharpbeak, and one bellydragger”.

I found the scene with the yellow bellies to be rather disturbing myself. :x They certainly weren’t my favorite dinosaurs in the LBT series, but I wouldn’t have wished this on them. (Perhaps I am unusual in this regard.) Not that it can be helped, but even they knew well enough to run from the Baryonyx in LBT XIII. It seems strange that they didn’t just do the same here. (Just my opinion.)

By the way, congratulations on becoming an Ultimate LBT Fan, Serris. :)



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Serris

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Chapter 34 has been revamped.

All credit for modifications go to Pangaea.

------------------

And Pangaea, I am analyzing your ideas. Expect to see both groups featured in the fic.

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Pangaea

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^ Um...thank you. :)/:oops

Wait...which ”two groups” are you talking about? :confused If you’re referring to the examples I mentioned of dinosaurs not directly involved in the war that have appeared in the story so far, you needn’t necessarily use those exact groups. You still could, obviously, but you could also introduce additional groups: perhaps the mixed herd of farwalkers from LBT VII, or an entirely new community of dinosaurs possessing weapons and/or battle strategies previously unknown to either side.

The big question I have is, how are the Great Valley dinosaurs going to defeat Claw Valley with the Reborn and Diamonds fighting for them? If the Stone of Cold Fire is destroyed, do the Reborn go back to being dead? (I assume the Diamonds are mortal, but extremely difficult to kill; would they return to normal if the Stone were destroyed, or is the change permanent?)



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Caustizer

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In Future Wars (the place where the Reborn were invented) Runners could take them down when their shotguns had Plasmic Shells to overcome their near immunity to other projectiles.

In Twilight Valley I suppose its either going to be (A) Destroying the Stone of Cold Fire, or (B) Crushing them under weight of numbers.  As I have said before the Great Valley should have allies, as Claw aggression likely goes beyond simply the Great Valley attack.  Theres bound to be some faction out there (leaf-eater or sharptooth) that wants to take them down bad enough to join with the Great Valley dinosaurs.


Serris

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Quote from: Pangaea,Mar 3 2010 on  10:23 PM
The big question I have is, how are the Great Valley dinosaurs going to defeat Claw Valley with the Reborn and Diamonds fighting for them? If the Stone of Cold Fire is destroyed, do the Reborn go back to being dead? (I assume the Diamonds are mortal, but extremely difficult to kill; would they return to normal if the Stone were destroyed, or is the change permanent?)
Diamonds and Reborn are capable of surviving massive injury (as in a spear through the head) but are not immortal. It is possible to kill them by using poisoned weapons, drowning them, setting them on fire or by simply inflicting massive trauma (beheading them, ripping them apart, crushing them, etc.)

And destroying the Stone of Cold Fire has no effect on the Diamonds. Not to mention that the Stone of Cold Fire is fairly hard to destroy. But if it is destroyed, all Reborn die instantly.

Quote
Wait...which ”two groups” are you talking about?

Dispossessed dinosaurs/farwalkers and defectors from Styracus's herd.

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Serris

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Damn it! I sort of know how the next chapter is going to play out but I cannot think of what to name it.

I know that chapter 36 will be the battle for the valley and it will be titled Primo Victoria (1 guess to where that name comes from).

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aabicus (LettuceBacon&Tomato)

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Something like "The Calm Before the Storm?" That also is kinda a reference to The Land Before Time, since it's formatted the same way.


Cancerian Tiger

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"The Calm Before the Storm" sounds like a good title :yes.


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Serris

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Chapter 35 is finished but I will post it tomorrow as I am getting very tired.

Also, note that I will be revamping the early chapters before new ones come out.

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Caustizer

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Revamping earlier chapters? You mean adjusting them for spelling and grammar mistakes and such or actually changing the backlore of the story?  :!


Serris

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Quote from: Caustizer,Apr 24 2010 on  09:05 AM
Revamping earlier chapters? You mean adjusting them for spelling and grammar mistakes and such or actually changing the backlore of the story?
Cleaning up grammar and smoothing out the transitions (especially cleaning up the "artifact" age <Early chapters implied that the Gang of Five was the same age in the movies. That needs to be fixed as it was explicitly mentioned in one of the later chapters that the gang is in their early 20s >).

----------------------------

On that note: here is Chapter 35

Note that the alternate title is "The Calm Before the Storm"

----------------------------

Author's Notes

The alternate title is credited to Cancerian Tiger and LettuceBacon&Tomato.

The title "Forward Unto Dawn" is a reference to the starship Forward Unto Dawn from the Halo universe.

Mo's abrupt changes in speaking are indicative of his languages. Water Speak is rendered as standard English. His Leaf Eater is rendered as the distinctly accented and somewhat English heard in LBT IX.

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Caustizer

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Interesting and creative beginning.  At first I was somewhat confused as to whom was fighting for whom, and that might become a problem later when you start describing Claw on VDF... erm I mean when the Great Valley and the Claw Valley are fighting.

I liked the concept of 'drawing grass' though it might have made more sense to use sticks in this case.  At any rate Saurolo's death is a very old event in the timeline of the story, and I was surprised Ms. Swimmer did not know about it yet.  I suppose Raptix ended up with quite the rotten job  :lol

Mo's scouting mission was certainly enlightening, and I like how you had a 'mercenary' of a friend who backs out of aiding the Great Valley dinosaurs which demonstrates that there is an 'unaligned' element outside the Great Valley dinosaurs that isn't effected by the war and isn't prepared to participate.

That being said though, I'm surprised the Great Valley has not enjoyed any support from surrounding vallies which are also in danger of attack.  I would think that news of the Claw aggression in the Great Valley and the brutality in Berry Valley would spread quickly and start to unite Excidium's prey against him.

As one last thing, at the very end all of the dinosaurs go 'in favour' which is a very unrealistic exchange in regards to agreement.  Usually when you put a question to a crowd, they either put of their hand or go yay or nay.

For example:

"All in favour?"

"Me"

"I"

"Count me in"

etc.


PS: You still haven't reviewed the last two chapters of FAH, except for the spelling mistakes  :cry


Serris

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Thanks! I will clean up the end (and credit you with the changes). And I am starting to review FAH (spelling corrections will come later - assuming Pangaea does not beat me to it).

I may also hold off changes until Pangaea and CT review as well.

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